Today at 12:56, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a crushing 478-to-39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This means that the deceptive treaty is now dead globally.

This is a day of celebration. This is the day when citizens of Europe and the world won over unelected bureaucrats who were being wooed and lobbied by the richest corporations of the planet. The battleground wasn’t some administrative office, but the representatives of the people – the European Parliament – which decided in the end to do its job beautifully, and represent the people against special interests.

The road to today’s victory was dark, hard, and by no means certain.

The final votes on ACTA in Europarl. 39 in favor, 478 against.

What lead us here?

Six months ago, the situation looked very dark. It was all but certain that ACTA would pass unnoticed in silence. The forces fighting for citizens’ rights tried to have it referred to the European Court of Justice, in order to test its legality and to buy some time. Then, something happened.

A monster by the name of SOPA appeared in the United States. Thousands of websites went dark on January 18, and millions of voices cried out, leaving Congress shellshocked over the fact that citizens can get that level of pissed off at corporate special interests. SOPA was killed.

In the wake of this, as citizens had realized that they didn’t need to take that kind of corporate abuse lying down and asking for more, the community floodlights centered on ACTA. The activism carried over beautifully to defeat this monster. Early February, there were rallies all over Europe, leaving the European Parliament equally shellshocked.

The party groups turned on a cent and declared their opposition to ACTA in solidarity with the citizen rallies all over the continent, after having realized what a piece of shameless mail-order legislation it really was, to the horrors of the corporate shills who thought this was a done deal. Those shills tried, tried hard, tried right up until today, to postpone the vote on ACTA past the attention of the public and the activists.

Alas, they don’t understand the net. And there’s one key thing right there: the net doesn’t forget.

But the key takeaway here is that it was we, the activists, that made this happen. Everybody in the European Parliament takes turn praising all the activists across Europe and the world that called their attention to what utter garbage this really was, that it wasn’t some run-of-the-mill rubberstamp paper but actually was a really dangerous piece of proposed legislation. Everybody thanks the activists for that. Yes, that’s you. You should lean back, smile, and pat yourself on the back here. Each and every one of us has every reason to feel proud today.

What comes next?

In theory, ACTA could still come into force between the United States and a number of smaller states. Ten states have been negotiating it, and six of those need to ratify it to have it come into force. In theory, this could become a treaty between the United States, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland. (But wait, the Mexican Senate has already rejected ACTA. As has Australia and Switzerland in practice. Oh well… a treaty between the United States and Morocco, then, in the unlikely event that the United States will actually and formally ratify it. You can see where this is going.)

As described before on TorrentFreak, without the support of the European Union, ACTA is dead. Doesn’t exist.

The European Commissioner responsible for the treaty, Karel de Gucht, has said that he will ignore any rejections and re-table it before the European Parliament until it passes. That’s not going to happen. Parliament takes its dignity very seriously and does not tolerate that kind of contempt, fortunately. This is something relatively new in the history of the European Union’s democracy – the first time I saw Parliament stand up for its dignity was during the Telecoms Package, where the Commission also tried to ram through three-strikes provisions. (Instead, Parliament made “three strikes” schemes illegal in the entire European Union.)

Many of the bad things in ACTA will return under other names. For the lobbyists, this is a nine-to-five job of jabbing against the legislation until it gives way. Just another day at work. We need to remain vigilant against special interests who will return again, again, and again, until we make sure that the legislative road for them is completely blocked. We must remain watchful.

But not today.

Today, we celebrate a job extraordinarily well done.

Today, on July 4, Europe celebrates a day of independence from American special interests.

Today, we stood up for our most basic rights against corporate giants, and won.

Congratulations to all of us, and thanks to all brothers and sisters on the barricades across the world who made this happen.

Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. He works as Head of Privacy at the no-log VPN provider Private Internet Access; with his other 40 hours, he's developing an enterprise grade bitcoin wallet and HR system for activism.

V for Victory!!!
It’s more than rejection – it’s devastating demonstration of anti-lobby awareness from our elected representatives. It’s first time EP shows it is not an automatic voting machine, but democratic agenda of EUROPEAN PEOPLE!

Now one can see, what sentence “WE ARE LEGION” really means, congrats!!!

Daniel

July 4, 2012

WOHO!!!!!

Oh, and I really like how you phrased “Today, on July 4, Europe celebrates a day of independence from American special interests.”… 😉

And, yeah man this is a fantastic day in human history, it gives me hope. In a way it is all CERN’s doing, with out them the internet would not be what it is today. The scientists there are working for humanity, and it shows.

They are answering some of our deepest questions and have given us the tools to protect and expand democracy and reason.

I look forward to the Europarl rubbing Karel de Gucht’s nose in his stinking sh*t.
I also hope this will have a long term effect on both the Parliament and the European people, reminding everyone that we don’t have to be slaves to the Commission.

What happens now with those EU countries that ratified ACTA?
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

[…] issue. The European Parliament yesterday voted to reject it. And the vote was crushing – 478 to 39. As prominent Pirate Party founder Mr. Falkvinge gleefully reports, this kills off any possibility of making ACTA a global legal tool for IP rights […]

[…] Falkvinge says: Today at 12:56, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a crushing 478-to-39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This means that the deceptive treaty is now dead globally. […]

GeorgeV

July 4, 2012

Oh, I didn’t realize that today is the “Day of Independence” for Americans. Kind of ironic that EU gets its independence from EU special interests in the same day.

Anders

July 5, 2012

Wrong, it’s independence from American special interests. ACTA is American.

Fredrik

July 4, 2012

Acta in trash can, lobbyists and EU commission humiliated, check! World change through Pirate politics: in progress. Thanks Pirate EU parl team, Rick and all of you who put time and energy into activism!

[…] VICTORY! ACTA Suffers Final, Humiliating Defeat In European Parliament – Falkvinge on Infopoli… Today at 12:56, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a crushing 478-to-39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject A… […]

Hello all, today, the 4th, an new era has been stopped and an new freedom is born.
Been at 3 of these “STOP ACTA” demonstrations around in Sweden and been there with an whole group of Occupy members, I’ve been to Copenhagen and Gothenburg when there were big demonstrations.. But first now after all, I feel the victory of Internet.

Long live freedom, the Internet and of course, the Pirate Parties world wide and I’ll include Occupy.

These are international corporations not “American Special Interests”. These are global entities seeking to rewrite the world’s rules, including American ones, in their favor. So I take a big of umbrage at the fact that you are portraying ACTA and the other laws as some sort of American conspiracy. Are there American corporations involved? Undoubtedly. But there are also European, Asian, Australian, and other corporations at work here too.

I am an American too, but I must admit that, yes, it is American corporations that are responsible for these outrages. It is the American government that insists on the pro-corporate clauses in these treaties. It is American organizations like the RIAA and MPAA that are leading the charge. This is our fault and it is because we are so under the control of the advertisers and slogan writers that this corruption is so rampant in our country. Our highest court has said that bribery is protected by the Constitution! They claim that they cannot even tell the difference between a person speaking his opinion and a corporation handing suitcases full of cash to a congressman! American ignorance and corruption is responsible for this mess.

[…] Parliament, many feared the worst. Even bigger optimists expected it to come out rather close. And now we know that the EP rejected ACTA with 478 MEPs voting against it (165 abstentions and the measly 39 voting […]

[…] may sound similar to that of SOPA in the United States—and that’s because the movement was inspired by anti-SOPA action, Rick Falkvinge (who founded the first Pirate Party) writes in something of a battle cry on […]

Z Guy

July 4, 2012

I’m proud that the corporate powers are being stood up too and actually for once defeated by the desires of the general public. As an American, this make July 4th even more special to me.

Renee Marie Jones

July 4, 2012

Congratulations, and thank you. I am afraid that my country is lost. Corruption, greed, and ignorance rule in America. The voters care only about slogans and sound bites, priding themselves on their ignorance. Our Supreme Court has declared corporate bribery to be protected by the Constitution. I am glad to see that there are places where corruption is not yet victorious. Thank you. Keep up the good fight. We need you.

Congratulations for this victory. Now take care for backdoors like the EU-Colombia/Peru FTA that i said before. Some measures like monitoring still present on this treaty and it is not so well known unlike ACTA.

Here in peru, your words are very appreciated (“Yes, there are a lot of evil bilateral agreements with similar effects in the works. But by stopping one with force, we are sending clear signals that the corps can’t get away with anything”).

We are on other conflicts (do you heard about Conga?) and these conflicts have higher priority than those where we are still a minority (internet for example), even when some threats are really dangerous for all. This is a petition for an attempt to stop the EU-Colombia/Peru FTA from european side. We already are in a bloody conflict against some private interests that menaces the nature and the propaganda media from governments and private corps. are still strong.

[…] primeiro lugar, ACTA got sent to the dustbin of history (maybe not for good, but one can hope). O Parlamento Europeu esmagou a ACTA, com 478 votos contra e […]

Pat

July 4, 2012

This is more than victory. It should be a heads up for people. Rarely do you see the world coming together as people to fight these kinds of things. Here is the ultimate proof that we can all change the world!

“Parliament made “three strikes” schemes illegal in the entire European Union.” Too bad for New Zealand, where parliament push in through in urgency so that the people could do shit all about it. Meanwhile the politicians compare the internet to skynet from Terminator and the main lady pushing it through states on her twitter that she got some albums from a friend on her USB, too naive to actually realise this was also piracy.

The law is total crock of shit, that only punishes small time pirates (parents who download some songs) while big players work around it with security measures that they may well have already had in place. Hell, torrent programmes apparently have an encryption setting that all you have to do is tick, and that alone seems sufficient work around.

[…] It’s been an amazing, fascinating and inspiring year in the internet community. Today, the Verge has a nicely-produced writeup on the Declaration of Internet Freedom which also gets into the story of the last year of internet politics, including the SOPA/PIPA fight. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the Internet plays as an election issue this fall, and how we as a community can work to carry our energy and momentum into the next US congress and administration, as well as on the global front. […]

Speaking with lead negotiators of ACTA from the Department of Foregn Affairs and Trade, we met with boastful unelected staff who were proud of the almost air-tight secrecy and held a disgusting lack of enthusiasm or even initiative to conduct any kind social or economic impact study to protect the hard working citizens and families of this nation. These are the same people negotiating the TPP on behalf of Australians and I think we need to be vigilant and ruthless with our ongoing campaign for transparency and accountability on these rogue departments of unelected representative’s holding our country to the ransom of international corporate interests.

[…] Here is the story in more detail: Today at 12:56, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a crushing 478-to-39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This means that the deceptive treaty is now dead globally. […]

[…] What began as scattered global protests against the ACTS over the weekend culminated in a crushing defeat in the European Parliament, which voted down the ACTA in a 478-to-39 vote. att=2014964 read […]

[…] ACTA Killed In European Parliament Today at 12:56, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a crushing 478-to-39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This means that the deceptive treaty is now dead globally. […]

[…] now, I shall stick to writing and cheering on the libraries, the Pirates in Parliament, the heroic civil liberties defenders, and my very own New York Pirate Party – you guys rock & are totally worth the threat […]

[…] Take careful note that I don’t say here that the Pirate MEPs where sufficient for victory on their own, which they certainly weren’t, but I am saying they were necessary for victory. Our first MEP, Christian Engström, had been relentlessly grinding the issue since 2009, when everybody else considered it a done deal. But through unwavering activist pressure from the outside, combined with MEPs on the inside who could explain in the legislative corridors what all the protests were about, the European Parliament turned and ACTA died globally. […]

[…] the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. We killed it on July 4, 2012 in a final, crushing defeat that left MEPs and EU Commissioners wailing about […]

[…] The bills themselves still exist, and could be discussed and passed in a heartbeat. That’s not likely to happen though, because of the enormous political baggage the two bills now carry. They’re extremely rare bills, in that they were introduced and passed by a committee, but dropped because of popular opinion. That success led to a renewed push on ACTA, and ended up with the European Parliament decisively voting against ACTA. […]

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